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A 14-year-old boy has been shot in the neck in a drive-by shooting, police said.

In the latest in a string of violent attacks against teenagers in the capital, the young victim was injured when he was shot outside a takeaway in Plaistow, east London.

Scotland Yard said it appeared that a red Citroen Saxo with blacked-out windows had driven past the Blue Ocean fish bar in Barking Road at about 11.30pm on Thursday. Shots were fired from the vehicle towards the teenager and his friends.

The 14-year-old received treatment at an east London hospital, where his condition is said to be non-life-threatening, a Met Police spokesman said.

Detective Inspector Simon Stancombe, who is investigating the case for Operation Trident, said: “We need the help and support of the local community to assist us to continue the removal of firearms from our streets. All calls to us are taken in strict confidence and we urge anyone with information to come forward and assist us with our inquiries.”

The young victim is black, and was wearing a black jacket, grey T-shirt, khaki green trousers and black woolly hat when he was shot, police said. They are keeping an open mind as to motive.

The shooting is the latest in a string of shootings and stabbings which have claimed the lives of seven youngsters under the age of 16 since the end of January.

Last Friday, 14-year-old Paul Erhahon was stabbed in the foyer of a block of flats in Leytonstone, east London, while Adam Regis, 15, a fellow pupil at Kingsford Community School in Beckton, was stabbed to death in Plaistow last month.

Adam, the nephew of former Olympic sprinter John Regis, died just days after Kodjo Yenga, 16, was stabbed to death in Hammersmith Grove, west London. Billy Cox, 15, was shot dead in his home in south London on Valentine’s Day.

Earlier that month churchgoing 15-year-old Michael Dosunmu was shot dead by gunmen who broke into his home in Peckham in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity. In January, 18-year-old Jevon Henry died after being stabbed in the heart in St John’s Wood, north-west London.